Many works remained unfinished in Edward Burne-Jones’ studio at the time of his death.1 The large size and elongated format of some suggest they may have been designs for stained-glass windows or intended for an architectural context. Burne-Jones, working with Morris & Co as well as independently, had made designs for stained glass from the 1860s and was the most successful and prolific designer of the Victorian revival period: between 1872–78 he drew more than 270 cartoons. While most of his designs were monochrome—William Morris being responsible for the colour—Burne-Jones often painted large-scale studies or cartoons, only to complete them as independent productions or to start afresh on a larger version.2 The artist’s own passion for revising his compositions, and his typically long periods of gestation, meant he often produced multiple variants over an extended period. Much of the inspiration for The Temple of Love c 1872 came from his trip to Italy in 1871, while Andrea Mantegna’s painting Madonna della Vittoria 1496 and Morris’ poem ‘Love is enough or the freeing of Pharamond: A morality’ (1871) provided the impetus.3 Morris’ poems tells of ‘a King, whom nothing but Love might satisfy, who left all to seek Love, and, having found it, found this also, that he had enough, though he lacked all else’,4 a view that accorded with the Pre-Raphaelite’s anti-materialist beliefs. Burne-Jones shows the House of Love crowning Pharamond with his lover Azalais at his side, a scene not specifically shown in the poem that seems to have been imaginatively interpreted by the artist. The grisaille panels in the background depict Burne-Jones’ other works of famous lovers including Pyramus and Thisbe, and Phyllis and Demophon. The composition was planned as the frontispiece of a publication illustrated with Burne-Jones’ woodcuts; although this project did not eventuate, he realised in the process of preparing the illustrations that his designs should be developed into this ambitious painting in oils.
Unfinished. Evidence of three stages of studio production: 1. Sepia drawing, 2. adding colour by assistants and 3. the artist working on the faces. Within the painting are highly relevant references to his emotional state. The translation is "Because she loved" and at the altar it is the maiden who leads the man to be crowned by Love. The carnations at the base not appearing in the drawing, in the language of flowers signify refusal reflecting on the recent debacle with Zambaco. Also added are reliefs of famous lovers which refer to Hero and Leander, Orpheus and Eurydice, Pyramus and Thisbe, and significantly Phyllis and Demophoon which related to the beginning of the affair, NB Fitzwilliam work list records the artist working on the painting in 1874 John Payne 1868? Quia Multum Amavit For me, I can not hold her life's long pain To have been all in vane I cannot think that God will let her go After this life of woe; Cannot believe that he, whose deathless love She aped so well, will look on from above With careless righteousness, While she sinks down Into hell's depths, an with a pious frown, Leave her to struggle in the devil's clutch. True she was wicked; - but she loved so much. The phrase "Quia Multum Amavit" was very current around 1870 amongst poets - John Payne, Swinburne and Morris and later Oscar Wilde.
The idea of cherubs in the upper part of the painting may be derived from the Ceiling of the Camera degli Sposi by Andrea Mantegna and a similar idea occurs in the drawing "ELENA RAPITA DA PARIS" 'The Florentine Picture-Chronicle' page from the album (recto of 1889,0527.54) Paris and Helen standing arm in arm in a circular pavillion decorated with a frieze of putti, in the British Museum, circle of Maso Finiguerra.